ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Discuss how to and whether you should renovate your lawn
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ECUPirate
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ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by ECUPirate » June 9th, 2020, 8:39 pm

Welp, there's no turning back now. I sprayed glyphosate on my centipede/weed mixture of a front yard tonight and plan on dethatching and seeding La Prima bermuda in the next 7 to 10 days (I have the seed on hand already). I have roughly 5,000 sf I'm working on for this reno and I don't have a sprinkler system, which concerns me a little bit. I've been watching several YouTube videos and I think I can get by with garden hoses and above ground rotary sprinklers.

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ECUPirate
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by ECUPirate » June 10th, 2020, 8:16 am

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Here's an aerial view of what I'm currently working with. I removed a river birch where the red circle is in the pic about 2 months ago because it was completely shading out the right side of my yard (as you can tell). The maple tree in the pic is getting cut down today so the yard will be full sun when I get ready to seed. I'm also going to remove the oddly placed crepe myrtle and move it to the back yard.

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ECUPirate
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by ECUPirate » July 1st, 2020, 10:28 am

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Getting ready to prepare my seed bed and spread seed this week. In order to get rid of all of the dead grass and create a good seed bed, would you recommend a dethatcher/lawn comber or a slit seeder? I also never realized how many weeds I had in my front yard until all of the bare spots popped up after killing everything off. I'm ready to have a lawn again, I know that. This looks terrible and I've had several stares and comments from neighbors about my "dead lawn".

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ECUPirate
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by ECUPirate » July 1st, 2020, 8:33 pm

Went ahead and rented a dethatcher and used it to get rid of all of the dead grass and it did a better job than I was expecting. I also got my above ground sprinklers set up and seeded tonight. I saw a YouTube video of a guy recommending to wait 7 days before placing starter fertilizer. He said he wanted to give the seed about a week to establish itself before fertilizing so you aren't fertilizing mainly weeds. Anyone tried this method?

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ECUPirate
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by ECUPirate » July 2nd, 2020, 12:06 pm

Ended up with 11 piles of dead grass that I moved to the backyard for organic material.

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I got my seed down and sprinklers set up last night and had a decent rain storm that wasn't heavy enough to wash my seed away. :yahoo: Now the waiting begins.


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ken-n-nancy
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by ken-n-nancy » July 2nd, 2020, 12:28 pm

Looks nice. Time to pray for no washouts until those seeds germinate! How long do bermuda seeds take to germinate? (I have ZERO experience with seeding bermuda...)

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ECUPirate
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by ECUPirate » July 2nd, 2020, 10:34 pm

Bermuda typically takes 14-21 days but I've read reviews where people were starting to see germination after 8 days with this La Prima seed. Calling for scattered thunderstorms all next week so I'm hoping we don't get any gully washers.

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ECUPirate
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by ECUPirate » July 7th, 2020, 8:39 am

We have germination after 5 days! :yahoo: :clapping:

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ECUPirate
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by ECUPirate » July 9th, 2020, 12:57 pm

At what point should I start backing off on the water? I'm currently watering the lawn 4 times a day, 4 different zones, for 20 mins per zone. I'm assuming after the first cut but want to verify.

bpgreen
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by bpgreen » July 9th, 2020, 11:48 pm

I've never done a renovation and when I seed, I generally dormant seed, but my understanding is that you initially water 3-4 times a day for 5 minutes. At that point, you're really just watering to keep the seeds moist, so 20 minutes is getting water to the root zone (when the roots don't really exist).

You do that for about a month until most of the seed has germinated, then water 1-2 times a day for a week or so (maybe 7-10 minutes) , then every other day for a while (maybe 15 min) , then twice a week for 20-30 minutes.

I just read that this is for Bermuda. The only warm season grass I grow is blue grama. I watered a few patches of new growth the other day (threw seed down last October) , but that was after about 2 weeks with no rain. But blue grama is native to the desert southwest, so that's kind of the natural cycle.

If you're reasonably certain that you've got full germination, you should probably be safe cutting back to 2x per day for 10 minutes.

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ECUPirate
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by ECUPirate » July 10th, 2020, 8:43 am

I guess I should have clarified that I'm using an above ground system with only 1 impact sprinkler per zone. After 20 minutes the ground is wet but it isn't puddling. I'll cut back to 10 minutes twice per day and see how it does. Thanks for the insight.

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ECUPirate
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by ECUPirate » July 10th, 2020, 8:47 am

8 days from seed down and I think it's filling in pretty nicely.

Image


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Dargin
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by Dargin » July 10th, 2020, 9:57 am

Lookin' good! Gonna be a sea of green!
Good luck, man.

bpgreen
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by bpgreen » July 11th, 2020, 1:41 am

ECUPirate wrote:
July 10th, 2020, 8:43 am
I guess I should have clarified that I'm using an above ground system with only 1 impact sprinkler per zone. After 20 minutes the ground is wet but it isn't puddling. I'll cut back to 10 minutes twice per day and see how it does. Thanks for the insight.
Keeping the surface wet is the goal for germination. Once you get germination, you want to encourage deeper root growth. So if it takes 20 minutes just to get the surface wet, you may need to water longer to get deeper roots.

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ECUPirate
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by ECUPirate » July 14th, 2020, 8:22 am

Day 14. Looks like it's almost time for a haircut! How long do you typically wait between seed down and putting a lawn mower on the grass? I have a 42" riding mower which I'm a little concerned about putting on the newly seeded lawn. I also have a Tru-Cut reel mower that I'm in the process of trying to find somewhere to work on it, it's been sitting for a few years.

Image

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ECUPirate
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by ECUPirate » July 28th, 2020, 10:22 pm

24 days after seed down and the grass is THICK. I'm currently having to mow twice per week and having to cut it at a height of 2.5". Next year I'll work on getting the HOC down.


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DevilDawg81
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by DevilDawg81 » July 29th, 2020, 9:47 pm

Looking great, keep it up!

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ECUPirate
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by ECUPirate » July 31st, 2020, 3:04 pm

Andy, not sure if this question should be posted here in the reno or under my soil test but how long should I wait before putting lime down on this grass? Does it matter or can I go ahead and put some down?

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andy10917
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by andy10917 » July 31st, 2020, 9:58 pm

I don't know where your soil test is - put up a link to it please

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ECUPirate
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Re: ECUPirate 2020 Reno

Post by ECUPirate » August 1st, 2020, 8:24 am

Link to soil test.

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=25850

I've been following the regimen on the backyard only since I was planning on doing a reno in the front yard.

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